My friend Mary contacted me and asked me to plan and enchanted fairy forest birthday party for her 5 year old daughter. Mary owned a nursery and wanted the party held there, in the garden and forest surrounding the nursery. Mary could grow anything anywhere and had an eye for design as well. She had a fantasy-looking gazebo on the nursery grounds that was perfect for the girls' dining and party area - without disrupting Mary's nursery business.
This gazebo sat in a large garden area with solar light lit walkways and that was surrounded by pine forest. Mary often rented this area out for weddings and other events.
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A woodland enchanted forest seemed the way to go.
invitations
We're going to do a more woodsy variation of the invitation at left.
Rather than the capped dowels for the the scroll we're going to use short pieces of tree branch.
Cut a leaf out of green construction paper and one hole punch it. Then we'll roll the scrolls like this:
Staging & props
Thread the twine through the leaf hole, then tie the scroll shut with the twine.
I'd seen a picture on Pinterest of a book I really liked. We wanted something to designate the entry to the enchanted forest, mostly so Mary's nursery customers didn't go back there wandering around.
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There was a slight hill in the footpath to the gazebo so that's where we set this book/arch up and I built a couple of steps up to it where the hill was.
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I built the book out of corrugated, butcher and kraft paper but where the second page of the book was, I'd cut an arched opening, then built an arch to frame that opening.
Mary did all of the floral work on it.
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The girls would eat in the gazebo so I set up 2 banquet tables - a round one for the dining table and a rectangular one to put food, etc. on. The gazebo had been wired for electricity by Mary's husband since they rented it out for weddings and other events so we covered the entire interior ceiling and the columns on it in white mini fairy lights.
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In the forest we live in there's moss EVERYWHERE. That gave me an idea. I underlit the girls' round dining table then ringed it with hanging Spanish moss. Mary and I went to Habitat For Humanity Restore and found 6 chairs that I made into moss chairs.
Don't worry if you can't find matching chairs. Mary and I deliberately got 6 chairs that didn't match and it looked way cooler than if they'd all matched. We then found this fairy garden statue with windchimes and we used that for the table centerpiece.
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Because this was a late afternoon into the evening party, Mary and I wanted LOTS of lights. Mary and I combined all of our white Christmas mini lights and strung them in a few trees nearest the gazebo.
We "enclosed" the back side of the gazebo with my curtain lights and draped artificial vines to frame the curtain lights. So it ended up looking something like this...
costuming
Of course all of the girls wanted to dress up like fairies...but what Katie didn't know was that with the help of my Broadway costume designer friend, we were making a very special fairy outfit for the birthday girl - an LED light up dress, with animated light up musical fairy wings!
The video at left is for adept seamstresses but what a fabulous fairy costume!
food/menu
We used disposable fairy themed dinnerware.
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This set came with the tablecloth we needed for the food table.
COLESLAW WITH A TWIST Recipe here
PINWHEEL SANDWICHES 31 easy recipes here
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POISON APPLE SALAD Lettuce, apple slices, blueberries, chopped walnuts. Serve with dressing of choice.
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CHICKEN SALAD WRAPS Recipe here
build a fairy garden
activities
I had a huge fairy garden at my old house that I tore down when I moved. I kept everything from that garden and brought it to the party.
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Mary set up a big galvanized tub and made a "blank slate" fairy garden and we let the girls have at it using all of the items from my old fairy garden.
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They had a blast building their fairy garden!
And because it's in a movable galvanized tub they didn't have to tear it down after the party.
HAVE A VISIT BY A LIVE FAIRY
Mary and I had a mutual friend dress up as a fairy to come visit the girls.
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We'd set up a craft table outside of the gazebo and our "fairy" brought everything for the girls to make magic wands, including glitter "fairy dust" in mini bottles.
It's a good thing it was an outdoor party because we had glitter EVERYWHERE!
in the kingdom of fairies
Designed for 4 and 5 years old children where children will have to help the little fairy, called Lilas, who has to succeed in her initiatory journey to become a real fairy. The children will have to solve different riddles that will allow them to progress in the adventure.
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unicorn scavenger hunt
This is a scavenger hunt with a fairy twist to it.
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The dragons have stolen the rainbow that protects the fairy kingdom. The girls must solve clues you make up to find the rainbow and restore it to the fairy kingdom. (You'll have to make a cardboard rainbow for them to find.)
How to make the rainbow:
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Draw a rainbow shape on a large piece of cardboard.
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Draw the rainbow lines in with pencil and fill inside the lines with paint.
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Paint white clouds and allow them to dry.
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Hot glue the clouds to the end of your rainbow.
We had the girls play in the woods immediately surrounding the gazebo and made it a little more challenging by doing it after dark and making the girls hunt with flashlights. Our live fairy went with them to keep them all together so no one was getting lost or scared.
paint fairy faces
catch the fairies
For this game you'll need a few computer printed fairies on regular computer paper. Copy some fairies online and save as a jpg file, then simply print them out. You want to keep the fairies on the smalle side.
Cut all of the fairies out and fold both sides of the paper slightly. This will make the fairies fall in a helicopter-like manner so the kids can't anticipate where the fairies will land.
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Each child will need a butterfly net.
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Stand on a ladder or balcony and drop the fairies a few at a time.
Whoever catches the most fairies with their butterfly net is the winner of the game.
fairy dance
You'll need:
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One less paper plate than you have party guests with a picture of a fairy glued on it
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Fairy music
Lay the plates out in a big circle. Have your party guests stand outside that circle. When the music starts, the kids must dance like fairies. When the music stops, each fairy must be standing on a fairy plate in order not to be eliminated from the game. For each round, you remove one fairy plate so you always have one less fairy plate than you do players in the game. (Think Musical Chairs but with fairy plates)